200 participants from 9 different countries (including 23 speakers) participated in this workshop: mainly representing ERA, the railway sector, NSAs, universities and the railway industry.

The workshop was split into:

• A plenary opening session in the morning chaired by Dr Josef Doppelbauer, ERA Executive Director with three presentations by ERA representatives on the following topics:
  • “Step by step for the future of the railway automation” by Dr Joseph Doppelbauer
  • “Vehicle-network/route compatibility” by Anna Gigantino
  • “Latest developments in the European railway safety” by Chris Carr

• And then three separate sessions from late morning to late in the afternoon dedicated to:
  • Infrastructure (chaired by Anna Gigantino, Head of Unit at ERA)
  • Vehicle (chaired by Thierry Breyne)
  • Safety (chaired by Chris Carr, Head of Safety Unit at ERA)

The workshop was opened by keynote speakers:

• Andor Tóth, Hungary NFM (Hungarian Ministry of Transport, Deputy State Secretary)
• Dr Josef Doppelbauer, ERA Executive Director
• Dr Jánós Jozsa, Rector of BME (University for polytechnics and economic sciences of Budapest)
• Tamás Alscher, Head of the Hungarian (railway) National Safety Authority (NSA)

The workshop concentrated mainly on the following topics:

• State of the implementation of the 4th Railway Package
• Challenges of the implementation of the 4th Railway Package in the German vehicle authorisation
• Introduction and implementation of the concept of the SMS in the railway sector in France
• Safety culture
• Safety certificates
• Cases of severe accidents
• Practical role of NoBos (notified bodies) in the vehicle authorisation, in the 4th Railway Package (vehicle authorisation, fixed installations …)
• Noise TSI, railway noise
• Innovation in the developments of the braking systems
• ERTMS, ETCS, etc.
• Level crossing safety

In the Safety Session:

• Isabelle Fonverne, UIC Senior Advisor for Safety was invited to present “How to improve safety at level crossings”

She gave an overview on the following:
1. Existing rules and regulations on LC
2. Mapping of the LCs in the EU and beyond
a) Types of LC
b) Statistics on LCs, LC accidents and victims (she mentioned ERA and UIC figures, see UIC public safety report:

http://safetydb.uic.org/IMG/pdf/sdb_2017_public.pdf

Also read:
https://uic.org/com/uic-e-news/569/ and PRESS RELEASE N° 39/2017: http://mailchi.mp/uic/international-union-of-railways-uic-issues-yearly-report-2017-on-railway-accidents-in-europe?e=52b4c9c5ae)

3. Solutions to improve safety at level crossings
a) Engagement: she mentioned

• The coordination by UIC of the EU project Safer-LC http://safer-lc.eu/
• The final report of the UNECE Group of Experts on improving level crossing safety http://www.unece.org/fileadmin/DAM/trans/doc/2017/wp1/ECE-TRANS-WP1-2017-4e.pdf

• UIC, IRU, OLE LC Safety flyers published in 12 languages in May 2016 to raise awareness of professionnal drivers (taxi, trucks and buses). In addition: these flyers and ILCAD videos are being used by ARCELOR MITTAL in Germany to train 5000 employees/subcontractors working on industrial sites with LC:

http://www.ilcad.org/LC-Safety-Tips.html
http://uic.org/level-crossings#documents

b) Evaluation
c) Engineering
d) Enforcement
e) Education

Under the topic “Education” she highlighted ILCAD www.ilcad.org

To remind the audience that the International Level Crossing Awareness Day is a joint commitment continuing from the success of the first European Level Crossing Awareness Day held on 25 June 2009 in 28 countries raising public awareness on the dangers of misbehaviour at level crossings.

Level crossing accidents account for only 1% of road deaths but 26% of all rail fatalities based on ERA statistics. Road and rail organisations from participating countries acknowledged their shared responsibility to deal with this issue by organising safety events to develop public awareness and safe behaviour at and around level crossings.

She announced that the 10th edition of ILCAD, the International Level Crossing Awareness Day should take place on 7 June 2018, launched through an international conference in Zagreb, Croatia. More information to follow.

To note that our plenary session of ELCF (European Level Crossing Forum) is due to take place on 30 November 2017 at UIC HQ in Paris and the ILCAD Task Force meeting to debrief on ILCAD 2017 and prepare ILCAD 2018 at SNCF Gare du Nord on 1 December 2017.